You Can Now Buy A PS Vita In Big W

When the PS Vita launched earlier this year, news that neither Big W, Target or K-Mart would be stocking the device caused many to wonder if the Vita would ever reach a mainstream audience in Australia. At the time Sony cited a "focused retail channel strategy across national specialist game and specialist technology retailers" as the reason why the 'big three' would not be stocking the PS Vita — but now it looks as though Big W will be selling the PlayStation Vita.

A PS Vita bundle, containing LittleBigPlanet Vita is now being displayed on Big W catalogues, and is on sale for $348.

This could signify one of two things — either Big W now want in on the Vita action as a result of a more mainstream, kid friendly franchise like LittleBigPlanet, or Sony themselves want to use LittleBigPlanet to appeal to a broader market and have done an about turn on their "focused retail strategy".

It makes sense. Back in February, when the Vita launched, Sony Australia stated there was a "long term vision" for the Vita and that it would "broaden channel distribution in the future". Looks like Sony (or Big W) decided now was as good a time as any to broaden the channels.

Thanks Steve!

Comments

One_Man_Matrix Guest

Sep 19, 2012, 9:49am

Before the inevitable Vita flaming starts, I'd like to chime in and say that I have used mine every day since launch, and it was a well worthy purchase. Looking forward to Assassins Creed: Liberation next month!

Between katamari, gravity Rush, psone games, monster hunter freedom unite and several other downloadable games I have only had small gaps in vita playability, even though some of these would have been fine on a psp itself the vita is just a much nicer device to play on

It is a fair call that there is a game drought at the moment, I don't seem to have a problem with a mix of Vita, PSP and PSOne titles available on the thing. Even without relying on older content, I am enjoying the Vita games (Imported Mortal Kombat as well, shhh!). The future looks great, LBPV tomorrow has great reviews, Assassins Creed and Playstation All Stars next month, Call of Duty Black Ops and Killzone Mercenary in the pipeline... And they are just the titles I care about! ;D

im slightly interested in vita, but it appears to have zero games that anyone would actually want to play. Psp seemed really cool back in 2003 but now the idea of a new one seems kind of old-fashioned, i dunno. ipods have kinda killed the handheld. At least 3DS has some genuinely neat games though (and is alot cheaper)

It seems wierd to me that in a time where retail chains are struggling they would refuse to stock a product. I'd imagine launch time would absolutely be the time you'd want to have the product so you capitalise on the profit from early adopters.

Any Kotakuers in the retail industry? Care to explain it? (I don't mean 15 year old who stack the baked beans, though)

Big W, being a chain store, would be buying MASSIVE quantities of the systems - and if the system didn't sell through in the first round, the would lose HUGE amounts of money.
Chances are they were just waiting to see what would happen with the Vita, after the poorer sales of the PSP compared to DS, so they would have a better idea of how much they needed and what worked best (ie, a bundle with LBP).

That's a bit of a narrow-minded way to look at it, my friend.
You have to remember we aren't Big W's demographic and al lthat stuff on their shelves that we think is rubbish usually sells quite well for them. You see more ads on TV for their 'rubbish' appliances because their target audience is mum's and families.
Think of the size of the audio/visual dept compared to everything else - it's just an add on - something else people can add to their trollies and so they still have some stance over the birthday/christmas market.

In the sense that even though systems sold have been lukewarm, I honestly think at the time of launch, Sony's production of the Vita units weren't at full capacity and Australia's allotment was simply small compared to a home console launch, so Sony looked to supply the speciality stores only.

Which is understandable as those that knew about the Vita would frequent these stores to begin with. Time has passed, stock availability is probably higher than they wish, but all the 'hardcore' buyers have picked up their Vita and certainly LittleBigPlanet offers a very big opportunity to hit the mass market with a bundle now.

The retailers didn't refuse to stock the product. Sony didn't supply the product to them (for what seemed to be unusual reasons at the time).
Now Sony had opened up supply to other retailers and they are stocking the product.

I've known this since last tuesday. Put it in TAY http://www.kotaku.com.au/2012/09/talk-amongst-yourselves-182/comment-page-5/#comments down the bottom. Apparently there were a large number of people asking if they stock the vita. Guess they finally caved.

Comparing between now and February, i don't think there were many games that would appeal to kids (off the top of my head) when the vita was first released, so neither Sony or the retailer would win.
With LBP coming out on vita now, LBP karting in a couple of months and Christmas /layby season coming around the corner, it would be a good time to try and get into that target demographic. Not saying it will cause vitas to fly off the shelves in the coming months, but by having it's presence in retailers now, it might be enough to influence parents to make the purchase. All it needed was a game that parents and kids will recognize and in a place where they would often go and look.

I first bought PS2 & then updated to PS3 when it came into market and now i have PS Vita. I got all of them on direct bargains and it was a well worthy purchase. I just enjoy playing games on PS Vita and the device consist different latest technologies. Lots of new games, apps & easy to carry in hand. It was a good experience on PS Vita after PS2 & PS3. The device is really cool. Looking forward for more new games.

Only logged in users may vote for comments!

Get Permalink

Trending Stories Right Now

Today, how you feel about panty shots can determine how you feel about anime as a whole. And it's not just panty shots. In the blockbuster anime Food Wars, women's clothes burst off their bodies when they taste an exquisite bite of steak. Skirts often don't cover the bottom halves of women's butts in Prison School. Breasts are regularly the first body part to enter a shot in Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?. In the West, the practice of lacing gratuitous sexuality -- and especially female sexuality -- into an anime is known as "fan service". Love it or hate it, anime studios have made a conscious effort to feature "fan service" in most of this year's Western-subbed anime titles.